I'm Sure You've Heard It All Before

break ups suck

I still had the house to myself since my parents were still on their business trip.

Last night, Franco kissed me. And I kissed him too. Sure it was only on the cheek but I swear to god, my lips tingled when they touched his cheek. Franco had a little bit of stubble on his cheek which made him look older (it also felt like I was kissing velcro) Still, I loved his stubble.

When I woke up, I woke up with a smile on my face, reliving last night. I couldn't stop admiring Franco when he was delivering his speech on The Simpsons. He was so sure of himself, so poised, so... attractive. And he likes me! Me. It was so hard to understand why but he did so I tried not to question it.

For breakfast, I made banana pancakes and whipped up a protein shake from my parent's stash. They always get mad because I constantly drink their protein shakes and never ask them to buy me some. But hey, they were leaving me alone in this house for the next week so they can spare one.

At the breakfast table, I went on my phone to scroll through Twitter. I ate my food while looking through a bunch of random stuff. Everyone was talking about the Steven Universe finale which I hadn't watched. Yet. I was watching a clip of the finale when Aleeah started calling me.

I answered. "Hey, what's up?"

Aleeah started sobbing and didn't say anything.

"Lee, are you okay?" My heart was beating and I started getting worried for my best friend.

"I'm fine, it's just... Jane broke up with me."

Oh my god. Not Jane.

"Lee, oh my god. I... where are you? Stay where you are I'm coming to you. Just hang in there."

She hung up and texted me her location. I quickly got dressed and downed my smoothie before leaving in a hurry. I didn't put my dishes in the sink.

I quickly stopped by the Starbucks near Aleeah's house and bought her a caramel frappuchino because that's all she consumes and I got her a couple of cake pops.

I texted Aleeah that I'm on the subway right now and will be there in ten minutes. I couldn't help but feel Aleeah's pain. She was absolutely in love with Jane and I seriously thought that Jane was crazy about her too. Why wouldn't she be? I just am so curious as to why she broke up with Aleeah. It just seemed so sudden.

When I arrived at Aleeah's apartment, the door was unlocked which worried me a bit because hello, we live in Chicago. And Aleeah lives in the wealthy part of this town. I'll talk to her about it later but for now, It's time for a hell of a lot of affection for my best friend.

I walked into her room and Aleeah was laying on her bed, her back facing me. I knocked on the open door.

"Lee?"

She immediately sprung up and jumped into my arms that sent us both tumbling on the floor. She started crying into my shoulder.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm here, Lee."

She still cried quiet tears into my shoulder for about a minute when she pulled away.

"My god, Aleeah. What happened? I thought things were going so well for you and Jane."

"That's the thing," she wiped her tears with her sweater, "it was going too well."

"What... do you mean?"

"She just got accepted into Stanford and you know I'm still a fucking junior so she didn't want to go to college with a girlfriend. She just... thought this was best for us."

It still sounds crazy. I know that Aleeah never showed it but whenever Jane would talk about college Aleeah just got this worried look on her face and I just thought she was nervous for Jane but I guess that wasn't it at all.

"God, I want to hate her but fuck, I'm in love with her, Robin."

I hugged her again.

"Hey, it's okay. I know it seems hard now but it'll get better. You have me, Lee."

I didn't want to tell Aleeah that Jane will come running back to her even though I know that's what she would've wanted to hear. But I can't get her hopes up like that. I won't.

Aleeah and I ate the cake pops and she downed her caramel frappe while we turned on the TV and watched movie re-runs.

Aleeah had her head on my shoulder and I noticed her making quick glances at me throughout the movie. I caught her eye and we both smiled at each other but I don't know, Aleeah kind of kept looking at me with this...moon face.

Like I saw affection her eyes. Not friendship affection. Am I crazy?

You know what? Whatever. It's probably nothing.

I left Aleeah's house after an hour. When I hugged her she just didn't want to pull away from me. I guess she just didn't want her best friend to leave. I wouldn't either.

While on the subway, Franco texted me asking about the Creative Writing assignment that is due when we come back from winter break. I texted him that I already finished it.

of course :), he replied.

I couldn't help but smile a little. Franco is honestly so unbelievably nice.

I thought a little about Jane and Aleeah's breakup and the only reason that Jane broke up with Aleeah is because she's a year younger than her and she just didn't want to be attached to a previous part of her life. If only Aleeah was a year older, they might still be together because Aleeah is applying to Stanford next year and with her parents being past alumni and her being ranked fourth in our class, she'd definitely get in with Jane too.

Then I thought about Franco and realized something that I had honestly completely forgotten about since we started hanging out: I'm a year older than Franco.